Underneath: A Promises Side Story
by Miko-chan
Summary: Dishwashing liquids, Fluffy Pink Aprons and an unexpected surprise [Hao x Anna]


_**Underneath:A Promises Side Story**  
**Written **by Miko-chan**  
Disclaimer: **All of this characters are borrowed from Takei-san. Standard disclaimers apply.  
**Author's Notes: **Yep, matagal ko na itong sinulat kaso lang ngayon lang minadaling tinayp. In English, I'm a real slow poke. Gomen, gomen..._

* * *

He stood there, staring at her with utmost disbelief.  
  
No one wondered why he stood there frozen on the spot, like lingering for such a long time. He could not have been able to breath if it were not the fact that his lungs were still intact. He was still in a sudden trance, looking abashed and clammy at the same time.  
  
The night was still fresh, as the overlooking glass window on their room had brilliantly shown with the gradual appearances of stars. Even if the face of moon was cut in half, it did not affect the light it shed that filled the virtually dark area. She was wearing her usual black motif and crimson bandanna over her pallid tresses, with her string of beads that hung around her neck. However, simple she might be, he still ogled at her. What he had heard her ask awhile ago was still ringing in his ears, and unbelievably taking such time to sink through his head.  
  
In the last few months, no individual could destroy his composure in an instant. It might be that there is no such things as mixed feelings. But the way these overcrowding sentiments had blended in trepidation and enthusiasm, shaking him to the core since he could not believe his ears. Her eyes, dark and deep, were silently laughing as she continued to cuddle the two dwindling kittens in her arms. Both kittens, the auburn-furred Brownie and cream-colored Shiramiyuki-hime, were scurrying over playfully with their paws seemingly agreeing upon something. Still mouth agape as his feet was still stuck beside the open shoji, letting his emotions blew adrift as this had him thinking for a long time.  
  
It all started quite innocently, when he had finished the gruesome task of cleaning the dishes. Yes, he had never got over to imagine himself of being under her iron rule. Yet, he had this solemn vow that he will do anything---and he meant doing everything--just to make her happy. After all, he had fought an extensive battle in order to have her affection, and he did not plan to lose that easily or get all those sacrifices he made down to waste. And if that insinuated wrestling the soap suds with a grimy sponge, then he was inclined to obey, even if he should wear a pink frilly apron with a cute Winnie the Pooh logo sewn on its pockets.  
  
Unfortunately, rather luckily, as he was done finishing the first pile, Tamao emerged from the doorway and announced the arrival of her mistress from some unknown trip. Her face in a near tremulous expression, she informed him that the All-Powerful Maiden of South Pole (which is colder, by the way) was summoning him with haste towards their chamber--eherm, room.  
  
That should have given him the suspicion that something was not going exactly what should it _really_ be.  
  
Apprehension taking over him instantly, he did not bothered to take off the hideous apron--borrowed from Tamao, of course--going towards the place with a grim facade. He arrived, apron and perfectly tanned skin drenched with dried soap and tap water, his hair managed to survive as it was still unruffled on the entrance door. As soon as she had perceived his presence on the hall way, she suddenly gave her utmost attention to the little furry creatures with an alarming rate. Her face was sketched with a concentrated, controlled expression, with her mind closed and determined, as if anxious to give away what she was certainly hiding ever since she has returned.  
  
He leaned upon the door way, with an amused stare at her that could unnerve everyone, especially when you were smirking with such mischief. Silence began to reign between them, the itako remaining stubbornly quiet. The atmosphere that was folded around her was surprisingly subdued yet taut.  
  
"Anna."  
  
She nearly jumped at the sudden sound of his calm voice.  
  
"W-What?" she snapped, seemingly oblivious to his existence as she still scratched the underside of Brownie's ear unconsciously.  
  
Really....this was a little bit frightening. She was somehow forgetting that she was the one who called him HERE.  
  
"What's wrong with you?"  
  
_Nervous._  
  
She was nervous.  
  
The world is REALLY strange.  
  
"Why aren't you saying anything?" he spoke again for the third time, wanting to destroy the monotony.  
  
An exasperated breath. "Have you felt it?"  
  
A trickle of concern. "What do you mean?"  
  
"I MEAN, you are smart enough, idiot...to figure it out."  
  
"I cannot understand...what you are..." His voice faltered as soon as he began to realize what she was already confirming.  
  
When he was already stating the broken statement earlier, he started to feel a strange force emanating from her.  
  
He HAD felt it before. But he was just too damned to ask. As one of the former beings who can control the passages of afterlife and birth, he was entirely sure that she was...yet he cannot still hope too much. However, given now that she already knows (from that bony skeleton man, perhaps?) he can relieve himself now from what was holding him, and now her, from the start.  
  
Her spirit was now something incomprehensible, and he understood it.  
  
It was warm and comfortable.  
  
Powerful, but tender.  
  
Small yet _breathing...  
_  
"You are pregnant."  
  
There was muffled tone, which sounded like 'baka'.  
  
She was now waiting for his next phase of reaction, when his foot was somehow cemented for centuries and could not move an inch. That big knucklehead was now beginning to take deep breaths. Better then, she had contemplated earlier when will his lungs start functioning again. 

Trying not to feel the quiet rise of anxiety, she let the seconds go by slowly. Never, even for a single moment, dreamed that this would be happening. Mostly what she have been envisioned in the past was very different from this, which you surely will admit. However, with the sudden sardonic twist, she was now living a happy life.  
  
Impossibly, but true, she was contented.  
  
Especially with that stupid stunned expression on his face.  
  
"Is..." he began, swallowing tentatively. "Is it alright with you?"  
  
It slightly bewildered her that there was the chord of uncertainty and preamble.  
  
Hesitant.  
  
This night is REALLY filled with surprises.  
  
The young woman sighed. Probably he was thinking that she was not alright with the turn of the situation, after all, she DID loathed him. But things have changed drastically, as what life will always be. "Of course" There was faint trace of a smile in her lips. She settled the kittens on the wooden floor, her eyes still following their furry movements. "I wouldn't have let you touch me it it was not not alri--"  
  
Her air was abruptly restrained, when two tender arms from behind wrapped around her waist. He was endearingly embracing her with such unfathomable expression in his opaque eyes. His head settled along the crook of her shoulder, knocking off any notions in her swirling mind as he drew a warm breath over his now closed lids. With the surrendering touch of his, she relaxed and leaned against his strong posture. there were no words to release, for both of their throats were locked dry. Caught in the moment wherein the moon bathed them in a silent glow, sentiments flickering like a living flame.  
  
"The truth is," He spoke, unsure what to say. "I never thought that..."  
  
"That what?" She supplied for him to continue, not capable to bear the silence of the evening.  
  
"...he would allow me to have you." His hand trembled, the one that was covering the slight curve of her belly.  
  
_I was afraid._  
  
The itako slightly inclined her head to him, as her facade was settled with arising curiosity. His hold tightened a little, his drawn breath labored. She did not expect for him to uncover some of his repressed feelings. But then again, he was always been like that.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"You would never accept me." he whispered, barely audible if it were not his words were spoken against her nape. "I have hurt you so much," A trail of his hand caressed again slowly. "...too much." Another weary sigh. "and you loved him very much."  
  
Deafening calm prevailed.

"ITAI!"  
  
She elbowed him at his gut. The flabbergasted shaman wrenched a few distance away to avoid full disjunction., the assaulter merely step back and glanced at him with impassiveness.

_Asakura men are really a clan of **impossible** men._ This phrase was continually repeating in her head with a dizzying rate. Sometimes, you have to elicit a drastic, violent act (which she had performed quite excellently) in order to awake them from their moronic minds. There are even times that she was going to the point of wanting to strangle them. The thought was enjoyable, she snorted to herself, but she do prefer for her child to have his father alive though.

"Yes, I still do." She rolled her eyes in hopelessness of her husband. This gave the assaulted shaman a wounded look. "But." He expectantly gazed at her eyes levelly, where he can make out the pale upturn of her lips. "as much I hate your guts, you know what makes me stand you."

_If there was much stronger than that emotion, then he might have not been here in the first place._

She raised her eyebrows in an imposing order. "I expect that what it might be our offspring will be, I hope it takes some GOOD traits of yours." She raised her eyes towards the ceiling as she closed her eyes in disbelief. Why on earth does she have to put up with the lunatic male species of his blood, she will never understa--

While she was busy thinking about such things, the woman had not noticed the sudden decrease of distance between them. So she was caught gasping in unexpected attack when he carried his wife in his arms.  
  
"Mou!" cried out by a protesting commander-in-chief of the house, thoroughly annoyed by that hair-raising smirk that was tearing his face into two. "Bring me DOWN this INSTANT!"  
  
"_No_." It was dangerously sweet.  
  
"Bring. Me. Down." Her voice was shaking by some unknown foreboding that she felt in that grin.  
  
There was mischievous wiggle of eyebrows. "_On the bed?_ Don't know if we _can _on your condition"  
  
WHAP! "When would you stop being so perverted, you--" 

"--handsome, intelligent, bodacious, sexually attractive husband of mine?" He finished her cut-off sentence as he added with a brush of his nose to hers playfully. "Come on, you were about to say that to me."

"You ARE so ARROGANT!" She said between gritted teeth as he smiled so brightly that the moon will fade out instead with the new brightness of the dark night.

No one might believe at how conceited he can be, even if he is in utmost disgrace of pink stained aprons and heavy scent of dishwashing products...

Yet, when his laughter rang throughout the Funbarigaoka, she did not mind it at least.

* * *

Made during last year. Yes, when **Promises** by Syaoran no Hime was still at rage back then....(It's a Hao x Anna fic by the way. ) Actually, I'm just starting to return back to writing, as my Finals are coming nearer. If I come out even barely alive, I am going to post the fics that my sister has been pestering me to start. A little fic first...before I go to have 2-weeks of study.

The link to that wonderful fic:

h t t p : w w w . f a n f i c t i o n . n e t / s / 1 4 7 1 5 8 7 / 1 /

Just don't put the spaces.

Review Please!


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